Her Friend, Protector, and Papa
by alice-is-awesome123
Summary: This story starts off 2 weeks after Jean rescues Cosette. Jean Valjean and Cosette are having to deal with some bumps in the road. They have to deal with avoiding Javert, Cosette's, and sometimes Jean's, nightmares, and their pasts. Cosette is about 6 in this story.
1. Chapter 1

Hey guys! I LOVED this movie so I decided to write some fanfictions for it. I don't think the things I write will lead to the actual movie and stuff so ,sorry. Also, this is my first fanfiction ever so sorry if there're mistakes. Enough of my rambleing, lets get this started. Enjoy!

* * *

It was a cold and peaceful evening in January. Cosette and I were taking a walk, hand in hand, to the food stands near the house we were living at, our house. _Our _house… I never thought that I would ever share a house with anyone. To think, before I had taken Cosette from those awful people, the Thénardiers, I would have just been living alone, keeping myself safe from people who might want to put me back in the jail's heavy chains. If I was sent away again, I wouldn't have had the chance to save Cosette two weeks ago. My train of thought was broken when a sweet voice reached my ears.

"Monsieur, are you ok?" Cosette asked with concern. I noticed I was gripping her hand harder, as if scared she may be taken away from me.

"I'm fine, my dear Cosette. I was just thinking of the food we need to buy for out supper tonight," I said with a gentle smile on my face. The blonde hair girl knew I was lying. Instead of wondering what I was thinking, she nodded to show she understood I didn't want to tell her at the moment. We reached the food stand we needed to go to and got what we needed.

As we were about to leave, I saw Cosette looking at something on one of the stands. I couldn't see what she was looking at until I got closer.

"Monsieur, what are these?" she asked pointing at strawberries while looking at me. I wished she had called me Papa but we hadn't known eachother that long. So I didn't mind her calling me Monsieur. I chuckled slightly at her curiosity but then stopped myself. I forgot that when she lived with that the inn keepers, they hadn't taught her what most things were.

"Those are strawberries, Cossette. They're very delicious. Would you like some?" When I asked this, she looked a bit nervous. Cosette had been doing this whenever I offered her something, like more food. The first day I gave her supper, she was afraid to eat. The girl didn't know whether or not she would have more food the next day. I assured her that there would be breakfast, and she looked as if she was about to cry, like she had been tricked. That's what the Thénardiers must have done to her. "After we finish the batch we get, I promise we could get some more if you want," I told her.

"Ok. But can you eat them with me?" Cosette asked with a small smile on her face. I smiled back and bought some. I explained to her about some more delectable fruits on the way home. She seemed so interested in the things I told her. The curious girl kept asking questions like "What do they look like" and "How big are they" until we got back home. That night, we ate a beef stew. When we were done eating the stew, I got up and brought some strawberries to the table.

"Here you go, dear. You can pick the first one." She stared at them with her finger tapping her chin, which made me laugh. I watched as she picked the brightest red one and nibbled on it. After the first nibble, her eyes widened. She took a bigger bite of it and smiled gratefully at me. I picked a strawberry for myself and ate it. For a while, we ate the all the strawberries until they were all gone. After we were done eating and we washed the juice off our hands, I gave Cosette a bath and combed her hair on her bed.

"Thank you for the strawberries. I really liked them," the blue eyed girl said to me as I finished combing her long blonde hair.

"You're welcome, Cosette. I enjoyed them too," I said while putting the comb away. "It's getting late now. It's time for bed, ok?" As I turned around to look at her, I saw she looked very nervous and held the doll I got her tighter. I knew why she was scared. Ever since we moved here, she'd been having horible nightmares every night. I would have to go inside her room and calm her down. Whenever this happened, my heart would break as I saw her squirm. I never knew what they were about because I never asked. I assumed it was something about her past, but I didn't want to bug her to tell me. I don't blame her, though. It's like how I never told her about my past, well, at least not yet. If she wanted to tell me what it was about, she would tell me. But for now, we just left things as is.

"M-may I sleep with you tonight?" the small girl asked in a voice I could barely hear. I looked at her with a sympathetic smile and nodded. She put her doll on her bed, got off of her bed and grabbed onto my hand as we walked to my room, which was right across from her room. Cosette climbed on my bed and laid down. After I changed into my night clothes, I joined a already asleep child in bed.

I sat there for a while just thinking. I thought about the family the Cosette used to live with. In all honesty, I just wanted to kill them. They had done so many horrible things no child should have to go through, especially a child as innocent as Cosette. But I knew I couldn't kill them. I had promised God that I wouldn't kill anyone. My thoughts then drifted off to someone far worse than the inn keepers, Javert. I knew I would have to forgive him sooner or later. I couldn't just hate him for the rest of my life. But as I thought of what I thought of him, questions formed. What if he found me again? What would become of me? Would I rot in prison or live in a living Hell like last time? But the most important question was, what would happen to Cosette? What if they sent her to the Thénardiers again or didn't even give her a home? No, that wouldn't happen, that **won't ** happen. I promised her mother would take care of her, and I intended to keep that promise. I saw how late it was on the clock across from my bed and decided it was time to sleep. I put those thoughts at the back of my head as I blew out the candle next to my bed. I laid my head down and noticed something, Cosette hadn't had a nightmare yet. I smiled as I saw her finally sleeping peacefully. Before I fell asleep, the girl cuddled against my body.

"Good night…Papa… I love you…" Cosette said sleeply.

I smiled the widest smile I had made in a long time. This was the first time she had called me this. I know I had only known her for a short amount of time, but I had grown so much closer to her during that time. I hugged her and said, "Good night, my dear Cosette. Papa loves you too." I then drifted off to sleep.

* * *

So what do you guys think? Good, bad, needs to be fixed? And I know this seemed like a one shot but it'll become a multi-chapter, if it's ok with you guys. Hope you guys enjoyed and I'll see you all later!


	2. Chapter 2

Hello people of the internet! I'm glad some of you guys like this story! This chapter is longer than the last one and it was a little rushed. So, sorry bout that. If you think there's anything I should change, just P.M. me or write it in a review. Now, back to the story! *woosh!*

* * *

The first thing I heard when I woke up early the next morning was birds chirping outside. I wiped my eyes and looked at the clock across from my bed. I saw it was only 5 o'clock. It was such a peaceful way to wake up, but I really wanted to sleep in a little bit more. I felt something against my back, but just assumed that whatever it was, was just a blanket or one of my extra pillows. I was about to partly rolled over and was about to complete the roll when I remembered something important. I wasn't alone in my bed, Cosette slept in my bad last night. I had to stop myself and roll the other way so I wouldn't crush the tiny girl. When I thought everything was fine, I realized I was on already on the edge of the bed and I was rolling off the bed. I felt myself flying for a second then felt my shoulder collide with the floor. **_Thump!_**Well that could have been better. I sat up and rubbed the shoulder I landed on. When I looked up, I saw sleepy, confused blue eyes staring at me. "Papa, are you okay?" Corsette asked me while yawning. Oh, how I loved the way she called me Papa.

I gave her a reassuring smile and said, "Of course I am, my dear. I was just, um..." I tried to think of an excuse but couldn't think of any. The girl looked at me curiously while I thought of something to say. I didn't want to tell her something like, "I accidentally fell off my bed because I almost rolled on top of you". That would have been very embarrassing. As I had some excuses coming to mind, I heard Cosette laughing for some reason.

"Did that really happen, Papa?" she asked while still laughing. What was she talking about? Had I said something funny. Did I say what I was thinking out loud. Oh this was very embarrassing.

I sighed in defeat and shook my head while chuckling. "Yes, Cosette. I fell off the bed," I said laughing along with her.

After our laughing died out, Cosette sat in front of me at the edge of the bed. "Oh Papa, you're so silly!" She patted me on the head, as if I was a dog. I smiled at her as she yawned again.

"Well, that's enough excitement for now. I'll go make some breakfast and then later on, we'll go for a walk around a park I know near here," I told her kindly. She smiled brightly at me, which made her look even more adorable than she already is. The young girl let out a yawn and wiped her eyes again. She seemed so tired, but I don't blame her. It was only 5 o'clock and she usually doesn't have to wake up until about 8. "Are you still tired? You can go back to sleep if you want. I can wake you up later when breakfast is ready,"I told her. The sleepy Corsette nodded and laid back down. I tucked her in and kissed her on the forehead. She smiled and let out a happy sigh. To think, I had only known her for a little more than 2 weeks and we were already this close. I walked out of the room quietly to go make breakfast for us. Before I closed the door, turned around to look at her and smiled to myself. I could already tell today was going to be a fun day.

I cooked, well attempted to cook, crêpes with strawberries and milk. I accidentally burnt some of the crêpes, so I decided to eat the burnt ones and give Costte the ones that weren't burnt. It had been a while since I cooked things like this. When I was in jail, I couldn't cook and when I was mayor, I had a maid cook most of my breakfasts. Although, I never really asked her to cook it but she always insisted. I hoped the good crêpes I made were as good as hers. As I finished setting up the table, I heard light footsteps coming from the hallway. I turned to see Cosette with her hair already combed and her nightgowns replaced with a pretty light blue dress that she chose when we went dress shopping. "Good morning, Papa!" the girl said happily while skipping to the table. I wondered how she got ready with out me noticing. I guess I was too busy trying to make breakfast perfect. She looked at the food on the table curiously. "What are these?"

"These are crêpes. It's what those vendors were selling when we passed by the dress store last week. Try it. It taste delicious with those strawberries," I said as I sat myself down across from Cosette. She didn't seem nervous about eating like yesterday. She took a bite of the food and smiled.

"They're delicious! Thank you," the happy little girl said gratefully. I smiled at her and took a bite of my crêpe. She was right, they were good. It didn't even taste like it was burnt. As I continued eating, the taste of the food reminded me of my childhood. I remembered that when my mother had enough money to buy food for it, she would make crêpes and other good foods for me and my sister. My childhood was blurry. I didn't remember much of it for some reason. But as I thought about it, it might have been best I didn't remember. I must have been very focused on my thoughts because I was snapped out of them when I heard Cosette say something. "...today, Papa?" was all I heard.

"Hm? I'm sorry, dear but what was the question?" I asked nervously.

"I asked you what you want to do today," she said nicely, not caring that I zoned out while she was talking.

"Well, we could take a walk around that park I was talking about. Then we could go look around some shops. Do you want to do that?" I asked. Cosette nodded excitedly. "Ok, we'll leave soon. Let me just clean up a bit. Go ahead and grab your coat. It looks a little cold outside,"I said looking out the window.

"Okay. Thank you again for the delicious breakfast."

"Anything for you, Cosette," I said with a smile. As I was picking up our plates and putting them in the sink, I heard the excited little girl go to her room to get her jacket. I smiled to myself because of her enthusiasm. I went to my room to go change. I took off my night clothes and started changing into my long sleeved shirt and jacket. A shiver went down my spine when I thought about my past. These memories really scared me, but they would scare Cosette even more. I didn't want her knowing about my past right now, she was to young to know, but I knew I would have to tell her eventually. For now, I needed hide my scars and anything that showed her anything bad from my past. I finished changing and exited my room.

I entered Cosette's room and saw her humming while combing her doll's hair. "Cosette, are you ready to go?" I asked. I guess she didn't notice I was there until I spoke. She jumped a bit and looked up to see me at her door.

She smiled at me and jumped off her bed. "Yes, Papa." She skipped toward me and grabbed my hand. We walked out the house and headed to the park. When we got there, there weren't many people, which was a good thing. I was a wanted criminal, so it makes sense that I wanted us to lay low in public. While Corsette and I walked around the park, we admired the view of the park. It was still winter, so there was snow everywhere, but that's what made the park beautiful. After a while we took a seat on a bench and rested for a bit. It was so peaceful. The small girl tugged at my arm and I looked down at her. "Daddy, can I ask you something?" she asked timidly. Did she just call me daddy? Oh that made my heart fill will joy. But something was wrong. She seemed to be a bit nervous, but why?

"Of course, Cosette. You can ask me anything," I told her with a smile. She was about to say something until we heard horses in the distance. I turned to the direction they were coming from. The sight I saw made my heart drop a little. I saw the one person I didn't want to see right now, Javert with a group of police surrounding him. They must have been either just looking around to make sure their was no trouble or he was looking for me. They was getting closer to us but they didn't seem to notice us yet "Damn it..." I mumbled as I got off the bench.

"Papa, what's wrong?" Cosette asked with a worried tone.

I looked down at the confused little girl. I didn't want to frighten her and tell her the truth. I heard the horses coming closer. "It's nothing, my dear. I just noticed how long we've been out. We should be getting back home now," I said. I grabbed her hand and started walking fast in the direction of our house. I wondered out of all the times he could be here,why did it have to be now? We had to get home, fast. But it was kind of hard to get home faster without getting noticed. I didn't want us to seem suspicious so we couldn't run. The sun was still up pretty high so hiding in the shadows like last time wouldn't work. So, we had to deal with getting back home at the pace we were going. I could still hear horses walking, but as we got closer and closer to our house, the sound of them faded away. I felt Cosette tug the sleeve of my coat. I looked down to see a panting girl.

"Papa, can we take a break? My legs hurt," she said in between heavy breaths. We must have been walking fast for a while if it made her tired. Luckily, we were almost at our house, so we didn't have to walk to far from here.

"Just a bit further, okay we're almost home," I said. I thought it wouldn't be the best idea for Cosette to walk anymore. So, I picked her up and continued to walk home. When we got back, it was already 6 o'clock. We had left around 11 and we hadn't eaten since breakfast. It was no surprise we were exhausted. I thought it was best if we went to bed sooner since we had a long day. I put the tiny girl down and told her, "Why don't you go and get changed? I'll go and get dinner ready. I'll call you when supper is ready." She nodded and walked off to her room. I went ahead and got our ready so we could go to sleep early. As I was getting the food on the plates, a question popped in my head. What was Cosette going to ask me? Should I be worried? I decided that it would be best to ask her later. I finished setting up dinner and walked over to Cosette's room. I peeked my head into her room to see what she was doing. She was sitting on her bed playing will her doll again. She looked so adorable. I walked into the room and said, "Cossete, supper in ready."

The little girl looked up at me and smiled. "Okay, Papa." We sat ourselves at the table and ate.

As our meal was coming to an end, my curiosity got the best of me. "So, Cosette, what were you about to ask me at the park?" I asked. She gave me that nervous look again.

"Um, it's nothing, Papa. It's not important," she said after finishing her food. I probably shouldn't have asked yet. But what was said cannot be taken back.

I gave her a confused look then sighed. "Very well. I'm going to go ahead and clean up," I said already putting everything away. The girl nodded and started to walk off to her room.

When she was almost out of my sight, she turned around. The little girl ran back to me and gave me a big hug. I wasn't expecting for her to hug me, so I was almost knocked off my feet. "Thank you for the great day," Cosette said with a smile.

I smiled and hugged her back. "Your welcome, my dear." I picked her up and spun her in a circle. This made her smile even wider. Oh how I wanted this moment to last forever. After our cute little moment, I put her down and kissed her on the forehead. "I'll come to tuck you in after I clean up ,alright?"

"Okay, Papa!" She then happily walked to her room. I finished cleaning then went to my room to change. The first thing I did when I entered it was light my silver candle sticks. I stood in front of them and said a quick prayer. I then turned around and, to my surprise, saw Cosette sitting on my bed, staring at me.

"Cosette! How long have you been here?"I asked.

"I've been here since you told me that you'll tuck me in," she said. How did I not notice her when I walked in? I was usually sharp at noticing things. I then thought of something that didn't make sense to me; why was she waiting here? She must have seen how confused I was because she then asked, "Is it okay with you if I sleep here again? If you don't want me to sleep here, I can sleep in my room." Oh, that's why she was here. She looked a bit disappointed when she thought I didn't want her here. I cheered her up by picking her up and kissing the top of her head.

"Of course it's okay for you to stay here tonight. It just surprised me that you like sleeping here." There was a quick silence between us until I spoke again. "I'm not saying I don't want you sleeping here, but why do you like to?"

Cosette looked down, as if shameful of what she was going to say. "You make me feel safe..." she finally said. My heart skipped a beat. Did she really say that? She feels safe around a man like me? A man that went to prison and steals? No, that's who I used to be. I am not that man anymore. I stopped being that man when God gave me a chance to be "reborn". But either way, this innocent girl wouldn't know about my past for quite some time, so there wasn't much I had to worry about on that topic. Well, I least I hoped. I put her back on my bed and walked toward my closet. " I'll tuck you in after I get ready for bed," I said told her over my shoulder with a small smile on my face. After I was done getting ready, I returned to my bed with a half asleep girl on it. I was about to get in until I remembered that I didn't want what happened this morning to happen again. So I went on the side that was up against the wall so that I wouldn't fall again. I just hoped Cosette wouldn't fall off the bed. I tucked the little girl in and said, "Sweet dreams, my lovely Cosette. I love you."

"I love you too, Papa," she mumbled. I blew out the candles, climbed into bed, and hugged Cosette. I then drifted off to sleep peacefully but with a question still in my mind; what was she going to say?

* * *

And that's the end of chapter two. Hoped you guys enjoyed. And again, sorry if it's a bit rushed.


	3. Chapter 3

Hello people of the internet! So, um, my last chapter wasn't my favorite and I don't think you guys liked it. Again, I'm sorry about that. Anyways, on to the next chapter! And again, this may not be very good, but oh well! I'm still having fun writing this story. Now on with the story! *woosh*

* * *

_Two weeks later_

I woke up with my head throbbing. It felt like someone had smashed it with a brick or something like that. I opened my eyes to see that I was in a dimly lit brick room, chained against the wall. Why was I here? "You've been sentenced to five years in here for stealing. Unless you have bad behavior and try to escape. If you do that, I'm going to have to add some more years," a voice said. This voice, it was so familiar. I then realized who it was; Javert. I knew what he was talking about, the bread. Was that why I was here? I had already done my time, so I wasn't supposed to be here. But I did skip my parole, so I guess that was why I was here again. I was about to say something hateful to him and yell, but instead I said something else.

"I will not hate him, I do not hate him. I forgive him of his sins," I kept whispering to myself as he started to walk away.

"Oh, and don't worry about the girl. She'll be just fine," the detective said before he disappeared into the darkness in the room. Was he talking about my sister? One of my workers? I wasn't very sure so I put my head down in defeat. There was no use trying to escape. I would just be caught like last time. I stayed like that for a while until images popped up in my head. It was a girl, a blonde hair blue eyed girl. I wondered who this was, she didn't seem very familiar. Then, realization hit me. Cosette, that girl was Cosette. She was the one Javert was talking about!

"No. No, no, no, NO!" I yelled. I tried to free myself from the chains on me but it was not use. "All this was in the past! I did my time years ago. Let me go! Let HER go! Let me see Cosette! Please!"

I faintly heard Cosette's voice coming from the shadows. "Papa? Papa?!"

* * *

"Papa? Papa? Wake up!" Someone next to me was yelling and shaking me. I opened my eyes quickly and jolted up. Sweat was falling down my forehead and I had a heavy breath. It was just a dream, a very bad dream. I looked to my side and saw a worried little girl. "Papa, are you ok? You... you were rolling around a lot and screaming. And…and I was so worried," Cosette said on the verge of tears. Before she or I could say anything else, I hugged her tightly, tears on the verge of escaping my eyes. What a relief, she was alright.

"I-I'm alright, Cosette. I just had a bad dream. There's nothing to be worried about," I told her with tears falling down my face. We stayed in the position we were in for a while as I silently cried. While we were hugging, I thought about the dream. I hadn't had a nightmare like that in such a long time, and the ones I had weren't as bad as this one. This one was so… scary and different.

"Papa… are you sure you'll be alright?" the young girl asked quietly.

I let her go and said, "Yes. I'll be fine." We sat in silence for a moment. I was still curious about what the girl wanted to ask me the day we went to the park. I had waited for two weeks for the topic of her question. I didn't want to pester Cosette about it but my curiosity got the best ofI broke the silence. "Cosette, may I ask you something?" She looked up at me with a few tears still rolling down her face and nodded. "Well, what were you going to ask me that day when we were at the park?"

Cosette looked down at the ground nervously, like how she looked two weeks ago. She then said, "I was going to ask where those wounds on your wrists came from. I saw them the first night I slept here. When I woke up during the night, I was holding your hand, and I accidentally saw them while playing with your sleeve." Oh no. She saw the wound. Oh, I was dreading this day would come. What was I supposed to tell this innocent girl? Was I supposed to tell the truth or lie?

After much thought, I decided to tell the truth. Well, I told her _part_ of the truth "Well, Papa wasn't a good person a long time ago. I got in a lot of trouble and some bad stuff happened…" I was about to talk more about my past, but stopped myself. She was still so small and innocent. I didn't want her to know everything about my past, not yet at least. I knew I would tell her eventually, but for now, that was all she needed to know. I continued speaking, making sure I didn't say too much. "I did those bad things for a good reason though. But those events happened long ago. I'm not that type of person anymore. I have changed so much. Honestly, I would have taken a wrong path and would've done bad things again, but someone showed me the right path. " I looked down at Cosette. She looked fascinated of my story and at the same time was understanding. This was actually a very surprising action. I thought she would be freaking out.

"Oh, I see, Papa. Well I'm glad you changed. I like who you are!" the girl said happily.

"You know what, Cosette? And you know what, I think there was another person that showed me the right path," I said.

"Who, Papa?"

"You." I smiled down at her and gave her a kiss on the forehead.

I looked at the time and saw that it was already almost 11. We were late for church! "Come Cosette. Let's get ready for today." I said lifting her up. We were both ready and had a quick breakfast by 12 and we set off to the 1 o'clock mass. After the mass, we stayed in the church and said some prayers. I prayed that Cosette and I would be safe and happy. And that's how things were for a bit, but not all good things don't last forever. Not this time.

* * *

So that was chapter 3! Hope you guys enjoyed. I think this one was a bit better than the last one. Anyways, P.M. me or write a review to say if you guys liked it or nor and if you think I need to change anything. Also, either on the next chapter or on a later chapter, events might happen and they might not match up with what happens in the play/book/ movie, so sorry if you wanted it to.


End file.
